ascilite's Community Mentoring Programme Explained, 5 February 2015

Abstract

This one-hour webinar provided an understanding of how ascilite's Community Mentoring Program (CMP) works and how it can benefit you either as a mentor or mentee.

The ascilite CMP provides mentoring opportunities across a number of fields including technical, academic development, learning development, faculty academics and early career researchers, graphic designers, and programmers. The program seeks to involve participants in a professional mentoring relationship built between learners (mentees) and experienced practitioners (mentors).

Whilst the new learners may be experienced in some areas of educational technologies, the ascilite CMP is a vehicle for enhancement of specific knowledge, skills or capacities in an area of developing expertise. The program has been operational since 2003 with more than 100 members having taken part to date.

The deadline for the 2015 CMP Expressions of Interest (Applications) was 20 February 2015.

Presenter

Sue Gregory is a Senior Lecturer in Information Communication Technology (ICT) Education at the University of New England (UNE), Armidale. She is a long term adult educator having begun teaching adults in 1989 and coordinates ICT education units in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In 2007, Sue became aware of, and interested in, how adults engage with their learning in a virtual world. At this time she created a space for students in Second Life to undertake virtual world activities. This led her to begin researching virtual worlds as an educational space.

Since this time, she has been a lead on an OLT grant exploring virtual professional experience (2011 to 2012 – VirtualPREX: Innovative assessment using a 3D virtual world with pre-service teachers) and the recipient of an OLT citation award (2012) for "the innovative adaptation and expansion of virtual world technology to enhance learning and teaching in education and across disciplines”, two other OLT grants and completed her PhD. She is currently the Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working (VWWG) group which she began in November 2009.

In early 2012 Sue became a co-mentor on the ascilite Community Mentoring Program. Sue now chairs the ascilite Community Mentoring Program and Awards. Since attending her first ascilite conference in 2009, Sue has presented papers every year. She has also conducted symposiums, displayed posters and been part of the ascilite Executive since 2012.